Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Racial demagoguery surfaces as HERO decision is appealed

It must be Houston's water that causes so many citizens to have the identical handwriting.

Opponents of Houston's equal rights ordinance (HERO) are appealing an April court decision that sustained the city's determination that they did not have enough signatures to put a repeal of the ordinance on the ballot.According to Willie Davis, pastor of MacGregor Palm Community Baptist Church:

We talk about the days of my parents when poll taxes and other things
were used to eliminate the process of the voting for minorities. And here we have a city mayor … who denies the entire city of Houston the right to vote.

Mr. Davis should be ashamed of himself for using Civil Rights Era imagery to oppose a non-discrimination law. At that time white people claimed that God required segregation. Davis also demonstrates that he has very little respect for the intelligence of his parishioners. They always personalize their opposition because Houston's Mayor Parker is a lesbian. The fact is that there is no mechanism that would allow the mayor to effect a referendum to repeal an existing law. The matter is entirely in their hands.

The city's elected representatives, the city council, enact laws. A process exists to repeal laws through a ballot initiative (many, if not most, major cities do not have this means of appeal). A repeal requires that those who oppose the measure gather a certain number of signatures according to some very straightforward rules.

The ordinance was passed by the city council in May, 2014. In June this group of conservative Christian pastors tried to gather signatures to put the matter on the ballot. The pastors failed to get enough valid signatures so they sued the city. It's the American way.

The pastors demanded a jury trial. They got a jury trial (they should not have). They lost. They cannot accept a loss, possibly, because they believe that they are on the side of God. How could God align with a lesbian? “No fair — do over!”